Line 15 - On 18/06/20 the TBM Amandine, who started out from the Arcueil Cachan station (Line 15, lot T3C), broke through the wall of the future Villejuif IGR (Institut Gustave Roussy) station. The machine has covered 1.8 km since its launch in spring 2019. At the crossroads of 14 South and 15 South of the Grand Paris Express, the station of Villejuif Institut Gustave Roussy, is among the most important parts of the work program. The TBM will need to be guided carefully into the shaft, which is 63 m in diameter and 55 m deep. As a result it will take 3 weeks to get the TBM to the station exit. The TBM will then restart to the Villejuif Louis Aragon metro stop aiming for a final breakthrough in November 2020. Click here for further information.
Line 14 South - TBM Allison marked its 2nd breakthrough with arriving in the Cuchets shaft at a depth of 60m, on the Line 14 South, lot GC02. This is a ventilation shaft and also firefighting access which is located in the municipality of Villejuif. This is part of the Line 14 extension between the Olympiades and Maison-Blanche stations. The TBM will then restart toward the Kremlin-Bicetre Hôpital station where its arrival is estimated to be in the fall of 2020. Click here for the video and here for further information.
Lines 16 and 17 - Tunnelling began on the 17/06/20 from the Verdun shaft located between the municipalities of La Courneuve and Le Bourget. The TBM, named Bantan after Bantan Diarra, was the first firefighter from La Courneuve and will drive a 3.8km tunnel used for both lines 16 and 17. It will cross the La Courneuve Six-Routes station to finish its run at the Canal shaft in Aubervilliers.
The TBM Bantan will not be the only machine to be launched from the Verdun site. A second TBM, named Ines in honour of Ines Seddiki, founder of the Ghett'up association active in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, will start to dig Line 16, in the 3rd quarter of 2020.
Finally, Dorine, christened alongside Ines and Bantan last February, and whose namesake is Dorine Bourneton, an aerobatic pilot, will end the year 2020 by finishing part of the tunnel of line 17 at Le Bourget.
Click here and fr/127 for the tunnelbuilder archive. Visit https://www.societedugrandparis.fr/ and https://www.spiebatignolles.fr/. 27/20.
